All posts tagged ‘christopher eccleston’

Every decade since the inception of Doctor Who there has been some sort of anniversary special that pays homage to the previous Doctors.

It’s no secret this year there is a big 50th anniversary special in the works. There has been a lot of speculation about what this special will include, but everyone has hoped that it would feature all the living actors that have ever played the Doctor. While many of the actors are all too willing to play the Doctor again, Christopher Eccelston has been a lone hold out, claiming that he had no plans to return to the role.

Everyone’s lips are sealed of course but we do know that there is no plans to feature former companions; Amy Pond (Karen Gillan), Rory Williams (Arthur Darvill), Rose Tyler(Billie Piper), Captain Jack Harkness (John Barrowman), Martha Jones(Freema Agyeman) and Donna Noble(Catherine Tate). There is still some speculation as to whether the Doctor’s wife, River Song (Alex Kingston), will be the one who brings all of the Doctor’s together against the eleventh Doctor’s wishes. This anniversary special is going to be epic! I’m already planning my Doctor Who themed party for it!

The 50th anniversary special will not be the first time that the Doctors have joined forces. The 10th anniversary, in 1973 was celebrated with “The Three Doctors“. The 20th anniversary, in 1983, featured “The Five Doctors“. Even thought the 30th anniversary occured after the show had been cancelled, McCoy, Pertwee, Tom Baker, Davison and Colin Baker starred in a charity crossover episode of EastEnders. The 40th anniversary was marked with an audio adventure, Zagreus, starring McGann, Colin Baker, McCoy and Davison with additional archive recordings of Pertwee.

If any of Moffat’s previous writing has anything to say about his dedication to Doctor Who, this episode is guaranteed to impress!

Update: It seems the original sources for writing this were more rumor then confirmed fact and I’ve edited the article to reflect that. However, as a gift I found out that according to the BBC banner at the 2013 London Toy Fair new details about the 2013 season have been released.

As a native Englishwoman I naturally grew up with Doctor Who. I watched Peter Davison (the fifth Doctor) episodes that my dad had on VHS, and waited patiently each week for a new adventure from Sylvester McCoy (the seventh Doctor). I waited outside a bookstore with my dad for several hours to meet Sylvester McCoy, we still have the postcard we had him sign for my mom, who did not wait outside with us. Yet when people ask me where they should start when first looking into the world of the man from Galifrey, I invariably tell them to start with Christopher Eccleston, who is the ninth Doctor and first appeared on our screens in 2005. Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor bought the show back to main stream television, and is the first of the more “modern” regenerations.

If you didn’t grow up with any of the first seven doctors then, in my humble opinion, you have a better chance of appreciating them once you have invested a little in the character. I largely skip past the eighth Doctor as while I admire Paul McGann’s presentation, I do not particularly care for the format (TV movie) that his single outing took. Only once my Yankee husband was hooked on Eccleston and Tenant did I show him the McGann movie, a McCoy or two and the odd Tom Baker episode.

But then what to do if you love Eccleston, adore Tennant and can’t live without Smith, but have no patience for older television shows. Well luckily for you, the youtube channel Babelcolor has put together a 10 minute compilation of every single storyline. This is a narrative summary, not a character study. As such it will not provide you with any great insight into each of the Doctor’s regenerations, but it will give you a feel for where he has come from. You will see aliens that are familiar from the last seven years of programming, and you will see a glimpse of the humor that has carried through the years.

I moved from England to Maine in 2003. During this time, as I discovered many new family traditions, I came to the realization that the movie/Christmas special traditions of this country were vastly different from what I’d grown up with. GeekMom Nicole’s post earlier this month reminded me of this: all of the specials that she wrote about were ones I had never heard of prior to 2003. It took me years to love Ralphie…and even longer to love Rudolph. I don’t think I have yet managed to convince an American friend or family member of how wonderful my own Christmas specials are. So here are a few of the specials that I grew up with in England. They aren’t all English but they aren’t at all commonplace over here (from what I have seen).

1. Santa Claus: The Movie. This is the Father Christmas I saw in my mind as a child. When you talk about Christmas, this is the face that I see in that red suit. John Lithgow plays an evil toymaker to Dudley Moore’s optimistic elf. We follow the life of Santa in the 80s and watch a ragamuffin child and little rich girl help Dudley’s elf, Patch, learn what it truly means to be loved by Santa. The music sticks with me till April.

2.The Christmas Toy. Pretty much Jim Henson’s take on Toy Story, well before Pixar was around. What happens when you leave the room and your toys come to life? What happens when one of them believes that he will get to be unwrapped every Christmas morning. This show has some heavy moments in it (for instance, the toys “die” if they are seen out of place), but this is one I have already been watching with my two-year-old.

3. Raymond Briggs’ The Snowman. Having seen what toys who come to life do, this shows us what snowmen who come to life do. No dialogue from anyone, not even John Goodman, just music. If you have ever heard “Walking in the Air” and wondered why it’s always around, this is the source. It’s a beautifully quiet reflection for Christmas.

One of the things that I always looked forward to in December was getting the two-week edition of theRadio Times, Britain’s version of TV Guide. Usually published weekly, the two-week special encapsulates both Christmas and New Year’s, thus giving you the chance to schedule all of your holiday-time viewing beforehand. My dad still sends me a copy every year, though I can’t actually watch any of the shows. Still, I like knowing whether Zulu will be airing again on Christmas day, and I also like to be reminded to watch the Queen’s annual Christmas address. This year’s edition has me wishing for Gillian Anderson in Great Expectations and Christopher Eccleston in The Borrowers. I’ll have to settle, though, for ABC’s “25 days of Christmas” and get my Heat Miser fix on Christmas Eve.

How does the idea of having a bedtime story read to you by The Doctor sound? How about Martha? River Song? Even The Master or Captain Jack Harkness? Well now you can.

The word CBeebies may look like nonsense to anyone not familiar with the BBC but it is part of the daily vocabulary of most British parents. CBeebies is a BBC channel dedicated to preschoolers and is the only such channel that is available without paying a subscription. The channel airs from 6am – 7pm GMT and the final hour of programming is the Bedtime Hour which ends with a celebrity reading a bedtime story aloud. Each celebrity reads five stories, although only one is aired each night, and most are available to watch via YouTube. Countless celebrities have presented the Bedtime Hour; here are some of the Doctor Who cast reading their stories, have a look on YouTube to hear more.

David Tennant: Miki by Stephen Mackey

Christopher Eccleston: The Man on The Moon by Simon Bartram

Alex Kingston: Bedtime Without Arthur by Jessica Meserve

Freema Agyeman: Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram

Despite our inclinations for such shows as Dr. Who, Game of Thrones and Peppa Pig, our family does not have cable. We had bunny ears, now we have a box. We had five channels, now we have four. We adjust to this by fervent use of our local library, who are so kind as to stock unusual titles along with more regular viewing. This week we finally reached the top spot on the waiting list for Dr. Who Season 5 and so we have spent several sleepless nights devouring the Doctor, Pond and Rory. It’s a library “book” so we only had it for seven days. As Matt Smith’s second season as the Doctor is set to air this weekend, and I feel the cold draft of cableitis breeze through the house, it seemed a good time to reflect on everything we loved in Season 5 and have to look forward to in Season 6.

If you haven’t seen Season 5 yet, stop reading this now; spoilers!

I was disinclined towards the youth of Matt Smith when he was announced as the eleventh Doctor. This has nothing to do with my mild obsession with David Tennant at all. I grew up with Sylvester McCoy, lived vicariously through my dad’s ties to Tom Baker and had my first geek crush on Peter Davison. To my surprise I found myself enjoying Matt Smith a lot more, and a lot sooner than I expected. I believe he had me at “Fourteen years since fish custard.” Whereas David Tennant was his own Doctor, largely removed from the hardened Christopher Eccleston, it is in the youthful face of Matt Smith that I begin to see the past Doctors reflected more and more. Half expecting him to reach for a packet of Jelly Babies, Smith’s portrayal of the eleventh Doctor appears, at least to me, to incorporate much more of the pre-time-war Doctor than Eccleston and Tennant whose incarnations were both still coping with the loss of Gailfrey. Just as I couldn’t imagine David Tennant ever departing the role, I now have an equally hard time imagining a twelfth Doctor.

Best Matt Smith moment – The Big Bang “It’s a fez. I wear a fez now. Fezzes are cool.”

However the Doctor himself is only a fraction of what we have to look forward to in any season and this one is no exception. Rose was a beautiful soul to accompany Eccleston’s Doctor, Martha was certainly interesting and Donna was downright laugh-out-loud fantastic, but not since Tegan and Turlough have I felt such a wonderful dynamic between companions, though I am sure MANY will beg to differ. Amy and Rory, Rory and Amy, Mr and Mrs Pond. The will she/won’t she elements that run through the series are topped off beautifully in Amy’s Choice with the realization that a world without Rory is not a world she cares to live in. Where Mickey Smith’s occasional sojourns in the Tardis were well played I was always, if not relieved, certainly not sorry when he left. I was, however, delighted when Rory was invited aboard.

Best Amy moment - The Beast Below “What if you were really old, and really kind and lonely, your whole race dead. What couldn’t you do then? If you were that old, and that kind, and the very last of your kind, you couldn’t just stand there and watch children cry.”

Best Rory moment – The Big Bang “I’M PLASTIC.”

Then, of course, there is Stephen Moffat; the man who had bigger shoes to fill than Matt Smith. For those of us who despaired of Russel T. Davies’ embarkation from the show, who watched the first episode with trepidation, we can approach Season 6 with nary a care. The series took off running with The Eleventh Doctor and carried the torch well, each episode gaining in breadth and depth of Who-ishness until the culminating Pandorica story line, which felt old school and groundbreaking at the same time. The gleam in Smith’s eyes upon finding that his foes could come together in an alliance was beautiful. Moffat’s foray into leadership had its bumpy moments, the use of the Weeping Angels was not, to my mind, as successful as in Blink. Yet he certainly found a rhythm of his own and, much like Matt Smith’s Doctor, blends the old with the new exceptionally well.

Best narrative – The Pandorica Opens and The Big Bang, particularly the Pandorica fairy tale referenced throughout the series, and the ultimate alliance between the Doctor’s enemies.

The Doctor – check. His companions – check. Behind the Scenes – check. There’s something I’m missing I’m sure of it. Ah yes, Dr River Song; hello sweetie. When she first appeared in Silence in the Library I was an instant fan. Really who of us hasn’t fantasized about being in her position? Yet even with that in mind I was less than impressed with our initial encounter between her and the eleventh Doctor. She seemed a much less flawless character than my mind’s eye had built her up to be, too many secrets for the sake of secrets rather than the playful spoilers I so enjoyed. However, when her telephone rings in the penultimate episode you know you’re in for something good. Her arrival on scene brings that playful tone that Captain Jack brought to the first four seasons.

Best River moment – The Pandorica Opens – Hello Sweetie hammered into the rock on the oldest planet.

As to the mysterious controller of the Tardis in the Pandorica storyline? My money’s on the briefly mentioned true “owner” of the tardis, Marnal.

But that’s just my two cents. I hope BBCAmerica/BBC viewers enjoy opening day this Saturday – I’ll see you in 12 months! “Sorry, I’m not used to doing them in the right order.”